Page 3660 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 October 1990
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Out of the devastation and ruin that was the Second World War came the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948. This extraordinary declaration was to form the basis of the international human rights group, Amnesty International - which I had the pleasure of meeting when I was in London - which 13 years later, in 1961, came into being after a feature article by Peter Benenson appeared in the Observer newspaper in London. Peter Benenson was to become the founder of Amnesty International.
The article called on all people in all walks of life to begin working for the release of thousands of men and women in prison throughout the world for their peacefully held political and religious beliefs, provided they had not used or advocated violence. These prisoners were to be called "prisoners of conscience" and, with that, a new and potent phrase entered the vocabulary of international affairs.
Today, 29 years on from that first newspaper article, Amnesty's membership stands at over half a million individuals in 160 countries. In Australia alone there are 170 active groups. I was very pleased to hear the Leader of the Opposition refer to Amnesty on radio this morning. The efficacy and impartiality of Amnesty's approach, its strict standards, thorough research and "paper war" campaigning are obvious and well documented. By holding high "the light that no barbed wire can hide" Amnesty fosters hope and challenges the destructive forces of hate, fear and prejudice, or, put in another way by the American actor W.C. Fields, "I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally". Impartiality works both ways. Lord Justice Scott said, in that famous aphorism, that publicity is the soul of justice.
Amnesty works in that context, in a world where injustice thrives in the shadow of silence. We must speak out, act now and shed light on that which degrades and debases the human spirit. Thousands of people are in prison because of their beliefs. Many are held without charge or trial. Torture and the death penalty are widespread. In many countries men, women and children have disappeared after being taken into official custody.
In Guatemala street children are beaten and harassed by police. In Burma, in September 1988, several thousand monks, students and public servants taking part in a series of peaceful demonstrations calling for democracy were shot dead by security forces. In Argentina over 30,000 people, children among them, disappeared during seven years of military rule. The story goes on and on. In South Korea a young woman faces 10 years imprisonment for her peaceful activities in support of the reunification of North and South Korea.
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